We arrived in Encarnación 6 hours later and it is pretty hot here. We met a Dutch woman today who has been travelling through Paraguay for years and she told us that this is not normal for this time of year - it should be about 20 degrees Celcius colder. At least it´s a dry heat, it cools down at night and our room at Hotel Germano has air conditioning and a ceiling fan.
In Encarnación we quickly discovered that travelling in Paraguay is not always easy, because there are almost no services for tourists, despite the fact that there are a lot of things to do in this region. In fact, the tourism industry hardly seems to be there at all. I´m not sure whether there are no services because there are no tourists or no tourists because there are no services, but either way it means a little bit more effort for this lazy person, for I´ve become quite used to the ease of travelling through South East Asia and the information overload in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. For example, on Sunday afternoon we wanted to visit Hotel Tirol, a famous landmark in the area. We were informed that a local bus would be able to take us there. We waited at the bus stop for over an hour while eating our chipa, but no bus ever appeared, so in the end we had to take a taxi for the day not to be a total waste. Once there, though, we had a pretty nice time. Hotel Tirol is set in a beautiful forrest and has a certain old times´charm, although it was a bit eery to be there with just the two of us. Outside of the capital you will see this often though - just you out there without a single soul to accompany you. We had some beers and a quick dip in the pool, which was very nice on such a hot day.
On Monday we took another taxi to what is arguably the main draw of Encarnación: the Jesuit settlements in Trinidad and Jesús. These were in fact the whole reason that I wanted to come to Paraguay in the first place, but like it always seems to happen, we love it here so much that we wish to stay longer. We visited Jesús first and even though this has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993, there was absolutely no one there. We had the ruins, which were restored beautifully, all to ourselves with just a flock of pigeons and some very loud parrots for company. Jesús is a great place to get an overall overview of what a Jesuit settlement would have looked like in the 18th century, although this particular site was abandoned in 1767 when the Jesuits were expelled from the region.
Trinidad, on the other hand, is slightly bigger and has great details in its structures. Here there were a couple of workmen on lawnmowers, one small group led around by a guide and one lone female traveller. Unbelieveable!
Today was our last day in Encarnación and we wanted to visit Parque Manantial. Getting there, however, sounded very complicated when we asked our friendly landlady for help, since the Lonely Planet doesn´t even tell you how to get there. We were told to just go to the bus station and start asking random bus drivers if they were going in that direction. If they are and there is enough space on the bus, they will take you there for a small fee. It seems like a combination between taking an ordinary bus, a collective taxi, and hitchhiking. Now, I don´t know about you, but to me that sounds very vague. It turns out, though, that once you get the hang of it, it´s surprisingly simple - we had a ride out of town in a matter of minutes. The park has a campsite with swimming pools, a restaurant and numerous walking trails, but we came to go horseback riding. No need to announce your coming or to make a reservation - the nice lady at the restaurant just called up the horse guy and 30 minutes and another pitcher of tereré later we were greeted by a man with his little daughter on horseback with 2 horses waiting for us. We went on a very nice ride through some beautiful forrest and even rode in the river for a little bit. When we wanted to get back to town we simply went back to the main road, held up our thumb and took the next bus back.
We are getting ready for an early start tomorrow because our bus to Ciudad del Este in eastern Paraguay leaves at 7.30 AM. Luckily our hotel is right across from the bus terminal. 5 hours later we should arrive in Ciudad del Este where we need to catch a local bus to immigration, because our next stop is Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil! Our passports are starting to look like ¨tattooed circus ladies¨ alright, as Elizabeth Gilbert beautifully describes in Eat, Pray, Love.
If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!
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